Between platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and Patreon, creatives have a lot of ways to get their content out online.
That creates a lot of data to sort through.
Nashville-based brothers Jason Burchard and Jeremy Burchard wanted to help artists, content creators, and musicians better organize and analyze data created from various online streaming and marketing platforms.
The answer came in the form of RootNote, a SaaS solution they describe as the “new and nerdiest member of your creative team.”
The platform allows for creators or managers to plug in all available revenue streams and data sources (think social media platforms, streaming platforms, distribution statements, Twitch, Patreon, etc.) into one place. The goal, Jeremy says, is to create a “holistic, 360-degree view of what it is that you are building as a content creator or musician.”
From there, RootNote is designed to make that data actionable through the “connected tools” the team is building out, be it benchmarking or goal-setting options.
This can be particularly important as an early-stage creator looks to determine which platforms are driving the most revenue online.
Helping creators and artists is something close to both Jason and Jeremy, who serve as CEO and Chief Creative Officer respectively.
Jeremy is a musician, videographer, and music journalist turned entrepreneur. Jason studied engineering before heading to grad school in London where he wrote his thesis on what an entrepreneurial growth model might look like in the music industry.
The first iteration of the brother’s venture was an alternative financing model for creatives.
But as Jason explained, they “realized relatively quickly into [that] journey we were going to have a really hard time scaling the model without data. And we just saw how complicated the data picture was for all of these music creators, podcasters, video creators, and live streamers that were basically trying to build businesses around the content.”
DATA IN MUSIC CITY
The team went through a small angel round previously and is now in the middle of raising a pre-seed round.
Moving into 2022, the team is focused on mobile optimization, continuing to add more data integration options for customers, and building out automation pilots.
While currently in beta, RootNote is being used by artists in the US, Canada, and the UK. Most users are full-time music creators, Twitch live streamers, and large management teams.
Jason said the freemium SaaS model is designed specifically to be able to scale with a creator’s career.
While founded pre-pandemic, RootNote’s ability to sort through and visualize data has been particularly powerful as more creatives and performers turned to online options to keep business going.
Being a Nashville-based venture is something the two brothers say is at the very center of RootNote’s identity. “We say were are culturally based in Nashville, meaning we’re very much about the idea of continuing to embrace creativity, be fans of creators, and be accessible…but also appreciate that work-life balance.”
“The beautiful thing about Nashville is that anybody, including the person serving you your coffee, could be the next big thing,” added Jeremy.
And perhaps RootNote will be the ‘nerdy’ band member powering that next big thing.
